Table Of ContentFixed-parameter Approximability of Boolean MinCSPs(cid:63)
E´douard Bonnet1, L´aszl´o Egri2, and D´aniel Marx1
1 Institute for Computer Science and Control, Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA SZTAKI), Budapest,
Hungary, [email protected],[email protected]
2 School of Computing Science, Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, Canada, [email protected]
Abstract. The minimum unsatisfiability version of a constraint satisfaction problem (MinCSP)
asksforanassignmentwherethenumberofunsatisfiedconstraintsisminimumpossible,orequiva-
lently,asksforaminimum-sizesetofconstraintswhosedeletionmakestheinstancesatisfiable.For
a finite set Γ of constraints, we denote by MinCSP(Γ) the restriction of the problem where each
constraint is from Γ. The polynomial-time solvability and the polynomial-time approximability
6 of MinCSP(Γ) were fully characterized by Khanna et al. [32]. Here we study the fixed-parameter
1 (FP-)approximabilityoftheproblem:givenaninstanceandanintegerk,onehastofindasolution
0 of size at most g(k) in time f(k)·nO(1) if a solution of size at most k exists. We especially focus
2 on the case of constant-factor FP-approximability. Our main result classifies each finite constraint
language Γ into one of three classes:
n
1. MinCSP(Γ) has a constant-factor FP-approximation.
a
J 2. MinCSP(Γ) has a (constant-factor) FP-approximation if and only if Nearest Codeword
has a (constant-factor) FP-approximation.
9
1 3. MinCSP(Γ) has no FP-approximation, unless FPT=W[P].
Wegivesomeevidencethatproblemsinthesecondclassdonothaveconstant-factorFP-approximations:
] weshowthatthereisnosuchapproximationifboththeExponential-TimeHypothesis(ETH)and
C the Linear PCP Conjecture (LPC) are true, and we also show that such an approximation would
C implytheexistenceofanFP-approximationforthek-DensestSubgraphproblemwithratio1−(cid:15)
. for any (cid:15)>0.
s
c
[
1 Introduction
1
v
Satisfiability problems and, more generally, Boolean constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs) are basic
5
3 algorithmic problems arising in various theoretical and applied contexts. An instance of a Boolean CSP
9 consists of a set of Boolean variables and a set of constraints; each constraint restricts the allowed
4 combination of values that can appear on a certain subset of variables. In the decision version of the
0
problem, the goal is to find an assignment that simultaneously satisfies every constraint. One can also
.
1 define optimization versions of CSPs: the goal can be to find an assignment that maximizes the number
0 ofsatisfiedconstraints,minimizesthenumberofunsatisfiedconstraints,maximizes/minimizestheweight
6
(number of 1s) of the assignment, etc. [19].
1
SincetheseproblemsareusuallyNP-hardintheirfullgenerality,awell-establishedlineofresearchisto
:
v investigatehowthecomplexityoftheproblemchangesforrestrictedversionsoftheproblem.Alargebody
i
X of research deals with language-based restrictions: given any finite set Γ of Boolean constraints, one can
consider the special case where each constraint is restricted to be a member of Γ. The ultimate research
r
a goal of this approach is to prove a dichotomy theorem: a complete classification result that specifies
for each fine constraint set Γ whether the restriction to Γ yields and easy or hard problem. Numerous
classification theorems of this form have been proved for various decision and optimization versions for
Booleanandnon-BooleanCSPs[46,13,10,11,9,12,8,25,31,33,47,37].Inparticular,forMinCSP(Γ),which
is the optimization problem asking for an assignment minimizing the number of unsatisfied constraints,
Creignou et al. [19] obtained a classification of the approximability for every finite Boolean constraint
language Γ. The goal of this paper is to characterize the approximability of Boolean MinCSP(Γ) with
respect to the more relaxed notion of fixed-parameter approximability.
Parameterized complexity [26,28,22] analyzes the running time of a computational problem not as
a univariate function of the input size n, but as a function of both the input size n and a relevant
parameter k of the input. For example, given a MinCSP instance of size n where we are looking for a
(cid:63) This work was supported by the European Research Council (ERC) grant ”PARAMTIGHT: Parameterized
complexity and the search for tight complexity results”, reference 280152. The second author was supported
by NSERC.
solutionsatisfyingallbutk oftheconstraints,itisnaturaltoanalyzetherunningtimeoftheproblemas
a function of both n and k. We say that a problem with parameter k is fixed-parameter tractable (FPT)
if it can be solved in time f(k)·nO(1) for some computable function f depending only on k. Intuitively,
eveniff is,say,anexponentialfunction,thismeansthatprobleminstanceswith“small”k canbesolved
efficiently, as the combinatorial explosion can be confined to the parameter k. This can be contrasted
with algorithms with running time of the form nO(k) that are highly inefficient even for small values of
k. There are hundreds of parameterized problems where brute force gives trivial nO(k) algorithms, but
the problem can be shown to be FPT using nontrivial techniques; see the recent textbooks by Downey
andFellows[26]andbyCyganetal.[22].Inparticular,therearefixed-parametertractabilityresultsand
characterization theorems for various CSPs [37,13,34,35].
The notion of fixed-parameter tractability has been combined with the notion of approximability
[16,17,27,14,18]. Following [16,38], we say that a minimization problem is fixed-parameter approximable
(FPA) if there is an algorithm that, given an instance and an integer k, in time f (k)·nO(1) either
1
returns a solution of cost at most f (k)·k, or correctly states that there is no solution of cost at most
2
k. The two crucial differences compared to the usual setup of polynomial-time approximation is that (1)
the running time is not polynomial, but can have an arbitrary factor f(k) depending only on k and (2)
the approximation ratio is defined as a function of k (as opposed to being a function of the input size
n). In this paper, we mostly focus on the case of constant-factor FPA, that is, when f (k)=c for some
2
constant c.
Schaefer’s Dichotomy Theorem [46] identified six classes of finite Boolean constraint languages (0-
valid,1-valid,Horn,dual-Horn,bijunctive,affine)forwhichthedecisionCSPispolynomial-timesolvable,
andshowsthateverylanguageΓ outsidetheseclassesyieldsNP-hardproblems.Therefore,itmakessense
to study MinCSP only within these six classes, as it is otherwise already NP-hard to decide if the opti-
mum is 0 or not, making approximation or fixed-parameter tractability irrelevant. Within these classes,
polynomial-time approximability and fixed-parameter tractability seem to appear in orthogonal ways:
the classes where we have positive results for one approach is very different from the classes where the
other approach helps. For example, 2CNF Deletion (also called Almost 2SAT) is fixed-parameter
tractable [45,36], but has no polynomial-time approximation algorithm with constant approximation ra-
tio,assumingtheUniqueGamesConjecture[15].Ontheotherhand,ifΓ consistsofthethreeconstraints
(x), (x¯), and (a→b)∧(c→d), then the problem is W[1]-hard [40], but belongs to the class IHS-1 and
hence admits a constant-factor approximation in polynomial time [32].
Byinvestigatingconstant-factorFP-approximation,weareidentifyingaclassoftractableconstraints
thatunifiesandgeneralizesthepolynomial-timeconstant-factorapproximableandfixed-parametertractable
cases.WeobservethatifeachconstraintinΓ canbeexpressedbya2SATformula(i.e.,Γ isbijunctive),
then we can treat the MinCSP instance as an instance of 2SAT Deletion, at the cost of a constant-
factorlossintheapproximationratio.Thusthefixed-parametertractabilityof 2SAT Deletionimplies
MinCSP has a constant-factor FP-approximation if the finite set Γ is bijunctive. If Γ is in IHS-B for
some constant B, then MinCSP is known to have a constant-factor approximation in polynomial time,
whichclearlygivesanotherclassofconstant-factorFP-approximableconstraints.Ourmainresultsshow
thatprobablythesetwoclassescoveralltheeasycaseswithrespecttoFP-approximation(seeSection2)
for the definitions involving properties of constraints).
Theorem 1. Let Γ be a finite Boolean constraint language.
1. If Γ is bijunctive or IHS-B for some constant B ≥ 1, then MinCSP(Γ) has a constant-factor FP-
approximation.
2. Otherwise, if Γ is affine, then MinCSP(Γ) has an FP-approximation (resp., constant-factor FP-
approximation)ifandonlyif NearestCodewordhasanFP-approximation(resp.,constant-factor
FP-approximation).
3. Otherwise, MinCSP(Γ) has no fixed-parameter approximation, unless FPT=W[P].
GivenalinearcodeoverGF[2]andavector,theNearestCodewordproblemasksforacodewordinthe
codethathasminimumHammingdistancetothegivenvector.Therearevariousequivalentformulations
of this problem: Odd Set is a variant of Hitting Set where one has to select at most k elements to
hit each set exactly an odd number of times, and it is also possible to express the problem as finding a
solution to a system of linear equations over GF[2] that minimizes the number of unsatisfied equations.
Arora et al. [3] showed that, assuming NP (cid:54)⊆ DTIME(npoly(logn)), it is not possible to approximate
Nearest Codeword within ratio 2log1−(cid:15)n for any (cid:15) > 0. In particular, this implies that a constant-
factor polynomial-time approximation is unlikely. We give some evidence that even constant-factor FP-
approximation is unlikely. First, we rule out this possibility under the assumption that the Linear PCP
Conjecture (LPC) and the Exponential-Time Hypothesis (ETH) both hold.
Theorem 2. AssumingLPCandETH,NearestCodewordhasnoconstant-factorFP-approximation
for any ratio r.
Second, we connect the FP-approximability of Nearest Codeword with the k-Densest Subgraph
problem, where the task is to find k vertices that induce the maximum number of edges.
Theorem 3. If Nearest Codeword has a constant-factor FP-approximation for some ratio r, then
for every (cid:15)>0, there is a factor-(1−(cid:15)) FP-approximation for k-Densest Subgraph.
Thusaconstant-factorFP-approximationforNearestCodewordimpliesthatk-DensestSubgraph
can be approximated arbitrarily well, which seems unlikely. Note that Theorems 2 and 3 remain valid
for the other equivalent versions of Nearest Codeword, such as Odd Set.
Post’slatticeisaveryusefultoolforclassifyingthecomplexityofBooleanCSPs(seee.g.,[1,20,4]).A
(possibly infinite) set Γ of constraints is a co-clone if it is closed under pp-definitions, that is, whenever
a relation R can be expressed by relations in Γ using only equality, conjunctions, and projections,
then relation R is already in Γ. Post’s co-clone lattice characterizes every possible co-clone of Boolean
constraints(seeTable1andFigure1).Fromthecomplexity-theoreticpointofview,Post’slatticebecomes
very relevant if the complexity of the CSP problem under study does not change by adding new pp-
definable relations to the set Γ of allowed relations. For example, this is true for the decision version of
BooleanCSP.Inthiscase,itissufficienttodeterminethecomplexityforeachco-cloneinthelattice,anda
completeclassificationforeveryfinitesetΓ ofconstraintsfollows.ForMinCSP,neitherthepolynomial-
time solvability nor the fixed-parameter tractability of the problem is closed under pp-definitions, hence
Post’s lattice cannot be used directly for a complexity classifications. However, as observed by Khanna
et al. [32] and subsequently exploited by Dalmau et al. [23,24], the constant-factor approximability of
MinCSPisclosedunderpp-definitions(moduloasmalltechnicalityrelatedtoequalityconstraints).We
observethatthesameholdsforconstant-factorFP-approximabilityandhencePost’slatticecanbeused
for our purposes. Therefore, the classification results amounts to identifying the maximal easy and the
minimal hard co-clones.
The paper is organized as follows. Sections 2 and 3 contain preliminaries on CSPs, approximability,
Post’s lattices, and reductions. A more technical restatement of Theorem 1 in terms of co-clones is
stated at the end of Section 3. Section 4 gives FPA algorithms, Section 5 establishes the equivalence of
some CSPs with Odd Set, and Section 6 proves inapproximability results for CSPs. Section 7 proves
Theorems 2 and 3, the conditional hardness results for Odd Set.
2 Preliminaries
A subset of {0,1}n is called an n-ary Boolean relation. In this paper, a constraint language Γ is a finite
collection of finitary Boolean relations. When a constraint language Γ contains only a single relation R,
i.e., Γ = {R}, we usually abuse notation and we write R instead of {R}. The decision version of CSP,
restricted to finite constraint language Γ is defined the following way.
CSP(Γ)
Input: A pair (cid:104)V,C(cid:105), where
– V is a set of variables,
– C isasetofconstraints{C ,...,C },i.e.,C =(cid:104)s ,R (cid:105),wheres isatupleofvariablesoflength
1 q i i i i
n , and R ∈Γ is an n -ary relation.
i i i
Question: Doesthereexistasolution,thatis,afunctionϕ:V →{0,1}suchthatforeachconstraint
(cid:104)s,R(cid:105)∈C, with s=(cid:104)v ,...,v (cid:105), the tuple ϕ(v ),...,ϕ(v ) belongs to R?
1 n 1 n
Note that we can alternatively look at a constraint as a Boolean function f :{0,1}n →{0,1}, where
n is a non-negative integer called the arity of f. We say that f is satisfied by an assignment s∈{0,1}n
if f(s)=1. For example, if f(x,y)=x+y mod 2, then the corresponding relation is {(0,1),(1,0)}; we
also denote addition modulo 2 with x⊕y.
We recall the definition of a few well-known classes of constraint languages. A Boolean constraint
language Γ is
– 0-valid, if each R∈Γ contains a tuple in which all entries are 0;
– 1-valid, if each R∈Γ contains a tuple in which all entries are 1;
– IHS-B+ (for implicative hitting set-bounded+) if each R ∈ Γ can be expressed by a conjunction of
clauses of the form ¬x, ¬x∨y, or x ∨···∨x ;
1 k
– IHS-B- if each R ∈ Γ can be expressed by a conjunction of clauses of the form x, ¬x ∨ y, or
¬x ∨···∨¬x ;
1 k
– IHS-B if it is an IHS-B+ or and IHS-B- language;
– bijunctive, if each R∈Γ can be expressed by a conjunction of binary (i.e., length 2) clauses;
– Horn, if each R ∈ Γ can be expressed by a conjunction of Horn clauses, i.e., clauses that have at
most one positive literal;
– dual-Horn, if each R ∈ Γ can be expressed by a conjunction of dual-Horn clauses, i.e., clauses that
have at most one negative literal;
– affine, if each relation R∈Γ can be expressed by a conjunction of relations defined by equations of
the form x ⊕···⊕x =c, where c∈{0,1};
1 n
– self-dual if for each relation R∈Γ, if (a ,...,a )∈R, then (¬a ,...,¬a )∈R
1 n 1 n
For every finite constraint language Γ, we consider the following problem.
MinCSP(Γ)
Input: A pair (cid:104)V,C(cid:105), where V is a set of variables, C is a set of constraints, and an integer k.
Question: Does there exist a deletion set, that is, a set W ⊆C such that |W|≤k, and there exists
a solution for the CSP(Γ)-instance (cid:104)V,C\W(cid:105)?
For technical reasons, it will be convenient to work with a slight generalization of the problem where
we can specify that certain constraints are “undeletable.”
MinCSP*(Γ)
Input: A pair (cid:104)V,C(cid:105), where V is a set of variables and C is a set of constraints, a subset C∗ ⊆C of
undeletable constraints, and an integer k.
Question: Does there exist a deletion set, that is, a set W ⊆ C\C∗ such that |W| ≤ k, and there
exists a solution for the CSP(Γ)-instance (cid:104)V,C\W(cid:105)?
Forthesetwoproblems,wecallfeasiblesolutionasetofpotentiallymorethankconstraintswhoseremoval
yields a satisfiable instance. Note that, contrary to MinCSP for which removing all the constraints
constituteatriviallyfeasiblesolution,itispossiblethataninstanceofMinCSP* hasnofeasiblesolution.
We will use two types of reductions to connect the approximability of optimization problems. The
first type perfectly preserves the optimum value (or cost) of instances.
Definition 1. An optimization problem A has a cost-preservingreduction to problem B if there are two
polynomial-time computable functions F and G such that
1. For any feasible instance I of A, F(I) is a feasible instance of B having the same optimum cost as
I.
2. For any feasible instance I of A, if S(cid:48) is a solution for F(I), then G(I,S(cid:48)) is an instance of I having
cost at most the cost of F(I).
ItiseasytoshowthatMinCSP* canbereducedtoMinCSP,showingthattheexistenceofundeletable
constraints does not make the problem significantly more general. Note that, in the previous definition,
if instance I has no feasible solution, then the behavior of F on I is not defined.
Lemma 1. There is a cost-preserving reduction from MinCSP* to MinCSP.
Proof. The function F on a feasible instance I of MinCSP* is defined the following way. Let m be the
number of constraints. We construct F(I) by replacing each undeletable constraint with m+1 copies.
If I is a feasible instance of MinCSP*, then I has a solution with at most m deletions, which gives
a solution of F(I) as well, showing that OPT(F(I)) ≤ OPT(I) ≤ m. Conversely, OPT(F(I)) ≤ m
implies that an optimum solution of F(I) uses only the deletable constraints of I, otherwise it would
need to delete all m+1 copies of an undeletable constraints. Thus OPT(I) ≤ OPT(F(I)) and hence
OPT(I)=OPT(F(I)) follows.
The function G(I,S(cid:48)) on a feasible instance I if MinCSP* and a feasbile solution S(cid:48) of F(I) is
defined the following way. If S(cid:48) deletes only the deletable constraints of I, then G(I,S(cid:48)) = S(cid:48) also a
feasible solution of I with the same cost. Otherwise, if S(cid:48) deletes at least one undeletable constraint,
then it has cost at least m+1, as it has to delete all m+1 copies of the constraint. Now we define
G(I,S(cid:48)) to be the set of all (at most m) deletable constraints; by assumption, I is a feasible instance of
MinCSP*, hence G(I,S(cid:48)) is a feasbile solution of cost at most m+1
The second type of reduction that we use is the standard notion of A-reductions [21], which preserve
approximation ratios up to constant factors. Note that we slightly deviate from the standard definition
by not requiring any specific behavior of F when I has no feasible solution.
Definition 2. A minimization problem A is A-reducible to problem B if there are two polynomial-time
computable functions F and G and a constant α such that
1. For any feasible instance I of A, F(I) is a feasible instance of B.
2. For any feasible instance I of A, and any feasible solution S(cid:48) of F(I), G(I,S(cid:48)) is a feasible solution
for I.
3. For any feasible instance I of A, and any r ≥ 1, if S(cid:48) is an r-approximate solution for F(I), then
G(I,S(cid:48)) is an (αr)-approximate feasible solution for I.
Proposition 1. If optimization problem A is A-reducible to optimization problem B and B admits a
constant-factor FPA algorithm, then A also has a constant-factor FPA algorithm.
3 Post’s lattice, co-clone lattice, and a simple reduction
Aclone isasetofBooleanfunctionsthatcontainsallprojections(thatis,thefunctionsf(a ,...,a )=a
1 n k
for 1≤k ≤n) and is closed under arbitrary composition. All clones of Boolean functions were identified
by Post [44], and he also described their inclusion structure, hence the name of Post’s lattice. To make
use of this lattice for CSPs, Post’s lattice can be transformed to another lattice whose elements are not
sets of functions closed under composition, but sets of relations closed under the following notion of
definability.
Definition 3. Let Γ be a constraint language over some domain A. We say that a relation R is pp-
definable from Γ if there exists a (primitive positive) formula
ϕ(x ,...,x )≡∃y ,...,y ψ(x ,...,x ,y ,...,y )
1 k 1 l 1 k 1 l
where ψ is a conjunction of atomic formulas with relations in Γ and EQ (the binary relation {(a,a):
A
a∈A}) such that for every (a ,...,a )∈Ak
1 k
(a ,...,a )∈R if and only if ϕ(a ,...,a )
1 k 1 k
holds. If ψ does not contain EQ , then we say that R is pp-definable from Γ without equality. For
A
brevity, we often write “∃∧-definable” instead of “pp-definable without equality”.
If S is a set of relations, S is pp-definable (∃∧-definable) from Γ if every relation is S is pp-definable
(∃∧-definable) from Γ.
ForasetofrelationsΓ,wedenoteby(cid:104)Γ(cid:105)thesetofallrelationsthatcanbepp-definedoverΓ.Werefer
to (cid:104)Γ(cid:105) as the co-clone generated by Γ. The set of all co-clones forms a lattice. To give an idea about the
connectionbetweenPost’slatticeandtheco-clonelattice,webrieflymentionthefollowingtheorem,and
refer the reader to, for example, [6] for more information. Roughly speaking, the following theorem says
that the co-clone lattice is isomorphic to Post’s lattice, except that the lattice is turned upside down,
i.e., the inclusion between neighboring nodes are inverted.
Theorem 4 ([43], Theorem 3.1.3). The lattices of Boolean clones and Boolean co-clones are anti-
isomorphic.
Usingtheabovecomments,itcanbeseen(anditiswellknown)thatthelatticeofBooleanco-clones
has the structure shown in Figure 1. In the figure, if co-clone C is above co-clone C , then C ⊃ C .
2 1 2 1
The names of the co-clones are indicated in the nodes3, where we follow the notation of B¨ohler et al [6].
3 IfthenameofacloneisL ,forexample,thenthecorrespondingco-cloneisInv(L )(Invisdefined,forexample,
3 3
in [6]), which is denoted by IL .
3
Co-cloneOrderBase
IBF 0 {=}, {∅}
IR 1 {x¯}
0
IR 1 {x}
1
IR 1 {x,x¯},{xx¯}
2
IM 2 {x→y}
IM 2 {x→y,x},{x∧(y→z)}
1
IM 2 {x→y,x¯},{x¯∧(y→z)}
0
IM 2 {x→y,x,x¯},{x→y,x→y},{xy¯∧(u→v)}
2
ISm m {ORm}
0
ISm m {NANDm}
1
IS ∞ {ORm|m≥2}
0
IS ∞ {NANDm|m≥2}
1
ISm m {ORm,x,x¯}
02
IS ∞ {ORm|m≥2}∪{x,x¯}
02
ISm m {ORm,x→y}
01
IS ∞ {ORm|m≥2}∪{x→y}
01
ISm m {ORm,x,x¯,x→y}
00
IS ∞ {ORm|m≥2}∪{x,x¯,x→y}
00
ISm m {NANDm,x,x¯}
12
IS ∞ {NANDm|m≥2}∪{x,x¯}
12
ISm m {NANDm,x→y}
11
IS ∞ {NANDm|m≥2}∪{x→y}
11
ISm m {NANDm,x,x¯,x→y}
10
IS ∞ {NANDm|m≥2}∪{x,x¯,x→y}
10
ID 2 {x⊕y}
ID 2 {x⊕y,x}, every R∈{{(a ,a ,a ),(b ,b ,b )}|
1 1 2 3 1 2 3
∃c∈{1,2} such that (cid:80)3 a =(cid:80)3 b =c}
i=1 i i=i i
ID 2 {x⊕y,x→y},{xy¯,x¯yz}
2
IL 4 {EVEN4}
IL 3 {EVEN4,x¯},{EVEN3}
0
IL 3 {EVEN4,x},{ODD3}
1
IL 3 {EVEN4,x,x¯}, every {EVENn,x} where n≥3 is odd
2
IL 4 {EVEN4,x⊕y},{ODD4}
3
IV 3 {x∨y∨z¯}
IV 3 {x∨y∨z¯,x¯}
0
IV 3 {x∨y∨z¯,x}
1
IV 3 {x∨y∨z¯,x,x¯}
2
IE 3 {x¯∨y¯∨z}
IE 3 {x¯∨y¯∨z,x}
1
IE 3 {x¯∨y¯∨z,x¯}
0
IE 3 {x¯∨y¯∨z,x,x¯}
2
IN 3 {DUP3}
IN 3 {DUP3,x⊕y},{NAE3}
2
II 3 {EVEN4,x→y}
II 3 {EVEN4,x→y,x¯},{DUP3,x→y}
0
II 3 {EVEN4,x→y,x},{x∨(x⊕z)}
1
BR 3 {EVEN4,x→y,x,x¯},{1-IN-3},{x∨(x⊕z)}
Table 1. Bases for all Boolean co-clones. (See [6] for a complete definition of relations that appear.) The order
of a co-clone is the minimum over all bases of the maximum arity of a relation in the base. The order is defined
to be infinite if there is no finite base for that co-clone.
BBRR
IIII00 IIII11
IIII
IINN22
IINN
IILL22
IIEE22 IIVV22
IIEE00 IIEE11 IILL00 IILL33 IILL11 IIVV00 IIVV11
IIEE IIVV
IILL
IIDD22
IISS1100 IISS0000
IISS1122 IISS0022
IISS1111 IIDD11 IISS0011
IISS11 IISS00
IISS33 IIDD IISS33
1100 0000
IISS33 IISS33
1122 IISS33 IISS33 0022
1111 0011
IISS33 IISS22 IISS22 IISS33
11 1100 0000 00
IISS22 IISS22
1122 IISS22 IISS22 0022
1111 0011
IISS22 IISS22
11 00
IIMM22
IIMM00 IIMM11
IIMM
FPA
NotFPAunlessNearest IIRR22
CodewordisFPA
IIRR00 IIRR11
NotFPAunlessFPT=W[P] IIBBFF
Fig.1. Classification of Boolean CSPs according to constant ratio fixed-parameter approximability.
For a co-clone C we say that a set of relations Γ is a base for C if C = (cid:104)Γ(cid:105), that is, any relation in
C can be pp-defined using relations in Γ. B¨ohler et al. give bases for all co-clones in [6], and the reader
can consult this paper for details. We reproduce this list in Table 1.4
Itiswell-knownthatpp-definitionspreservethecomplexityofthedecisionversionofCSP:ifΓ ⊆(cid:104)Γ (cid:105)
2 1
for two finite languages Γ and Γ , then there is a natural polynomial-time reduction from CSP(Γ ) to
1 2 2
CSP(Γ ).ThesameisnottrueforMinCSP:theapproximationratiocanchangeinthereduction.How-
1
ever, it has been observed that this change of the approximation ratio is at most a constant (depending
on Γ and Γ ) [32,23,24]; we show the same here in the context of parameterized reductions.
1 2
Lemma 2. Let Γ be a constraint language, and R be a relation that is pp-definable over Γ without
equality. Then there is an A-reduction from MinCSP(Γ ∪{R}) to MinCSP(Γ).
Proof. Onedirectionistrivial.LetI beaninstanceofMinCSP(Γ∪{R}).Letϕ(x ,...,x )beaprimitive
1 k
positiveformuladefiningRfromΓ.Then,ϕisoftheform∃y ,...,y ψ(x ,...,x ,y ,...,y ),whereψ is
1 l 1 k 1 l
thequantifier-freepartofϕ.Thekeyandwell-known(insimilarcontexts)observationisthatψcanbeal-
ternativelyseenasaninstanceofMinCSP(Γ).Moreprecisely,wedefinetheinstanceassociatedtoψ,I ,
ψ
astheinstancethathasvariablesx ,...,x ,y ,...,y andcontainsforeveryatomicformulaS(v ,...,v )
1 k 1 l 1 r
in ψ, the constraint ((v ,...,v ),S). It follows that for any assignment s : x ,...,x ,y ,...,y → A, s
1 r 1 k 1 l
is a solution of I if and only if ψ(s(x ),...,s(x ),s(y ),...,s(y )) holds.
ψ 1 k 1 l
WeobtainaninstanceI(cid:48) ofMinCSP(Γ)fromI usingthefollowingreplacement.Foreachconstraint
C =((u ,...,u ),R)inI,weidentifythequantifier-freepartψ (u ,...,u ,y ,...,y )oftheformula
1 q C 1 q C,1 C,l
correspondingtoC,andthenreplaceC withthesetofconstraintsoftheinstanceI ,wherey ,...,y
ψC C,1 C,l
are newly introduced variables. We leave the rest of the constraints intact.
AnydeletionsetXI forI istranslatedtoadeletionsetXI(cid:48) ofI(cid:48) asfollows.IfC =((u1,...,uq),P)∈
X and P (cid:54)= R, then we place ((u ,...,u ),P) ∈ X(cid:48). If P = R, then we place all the constraints that
I 1 q I
replaced C into XI(cid:48). Since the number of these constraints is bounded by a constant, we obtain only a
constant blow-up in the solution size. The converse can be shown similarly.
By repeated applications of Lemma 2, the following corollary establishes that we need to provide
approximationalgorithmsonlyforafewMinCSPs,andthesealgorithmscanbeusedforotherMinCSPs
associated with the same co-clone.
Corollary 1. Let C be a co-clone and B be a base for C. If the equality relation can be ∃∧-defined from
B, then for any finite Γ ⊆C, there is an A-reduction from MinCSP(Γ) to MinCSP(B).
Forhardnessresults,wewouldliketoarguethatifaco-cloneC ishard,thenanyconstraintlanguage
Γ generatingtheco-cloneishard.However,therearetwotechnicalissueshere.First,co-clonesareinfinite
and we defined the problems for finite constraint languages. Therefore, we formulate this requirement
instead by saying that a finite base B of the co-clone C is hard. Second, pp-definitions require equality
relations, which may not be expressible by Γ. However, as the following theorem shows, this is an issue
only if B contains relations where the coordinates are always equal (which will not be the case in our
proofs).Ak-aryrelationRisirredundant ifforeverytwodifferentcoordinates1≤i<j ≤k,Rcontains
a tuple (a ,...,a ) with a (cid:54)=a . A set of relations S is irredundant if any relation in S is irredundant.
1 k i j
Theorem 5 ([29,5]). If S ⊆(cid:104)Γ(cid:105) and S is irredundant, then S is ∃∧-definable from Γ.
Therefore,ifweconsideranirredundantbaseB ofco-cloneC,thenwecanformulatethefollowingresult.
Corollary 2. Let B be an irredundant base for some co-clone C. If Γ is a finite constraint language
with C ⊆(cid:104)Γ(cid:105), then there is an A-reduction from MinCSP(B) to MinCSP(Γ).
Proof. SinceB ⊆(cid:104)Γ(cid:105)andB isirredundant,B canbe∃∧-definedoverΓ usingTheorem5.Thenrepeated
applications of Lemma 2 shows the existence of the reduction from MinCSP(B) to MinCSP(Γ).
By the following lemma, if the constraint language is self-dual, then we can assume that it also
contains the constant relations.
Lemma 3. Let Γ be a self-dual constraint language. Assume that x⊕y ∈ Γ. Then there is a cost-
preserving reduction from MinCSP(Γ ∪{x,x¯}) to MinCSP(Γ).
4 We note that EVEN4 can be pp-defined using DUP3. Therefore the base {DUP3,EVEN4,x⊕y} given by
Bo¨hler et al. [6] for IN can be actually simplified to {DUP3,x⊕y}.
2
Proof. Let I be an instance of MinCSP(Γ ∪{x,x¯}). We construct an instance J of MinCSP*(Γ) such
that a deletion set of size k of I corresponds to a deletion set of size k of J; then the result for MinCSP
follow from the fact that there is a cost-preserving reduction from MinCSP* to MinCSP(Lemma 1).
Every constraint of the form R(x ,...,x ) in I is placed into J. We introduce an undeletable constraint
1 r
x⊕y to J, where x and y are new variables. For any constraint v = 0 in I, we add a constraint x = v
(i.e., constraints x⊕u and u⊕v) to J. For any constraint v =1 in I, we add a constraint x=v in J.
Let W be a deletion set for I. To obtain a deletion W set of the same size for J, any constraint
I J
that is not of the form v = 0 or v = 1 is placed into W . For any constraint v = 0 ∈ W , we place the
J I
constraint x=v into W (more precisely, if x=v is expressed as x⊕u and u⊕v, then we place u⊕v
J
into W ), and for any constraint w = 1 ∈ W , we place the constraint y = w into W . Then assigning
J I J
0 to x and 1 to y, and for the remaining variables of J using the assignment for the variables of I, we
obtain a satisfying assignment for J.
The converse can be done by essentially reversing the argument, except that we might need to use
the complement of the satisfying assignment for J to satisfy constraints of the form x=0 and x=1.
The following theorem states our trichotomy classification in terms of co-clones.
Theorem 6. Let Γ be a finite set of Boolean relations.
1. If (cid:104)Γ(cid:105) ⊆ C (equivalently, if Γ ⊆ C), where C ∈ {II ,II ,IS ,IS ,ID }, then MinCSP(Γ) has
0 1 00 10 2
a constant-factor FPA algorithm. (Note in these cases Γ is 0-valid, 1-valid, IHS-B+, IHS-B-, or
bijunctive, respectively.)
2. If(cid:104)Γ(cid:105)∈{IL ,IL },thenMinCSP(Γ)isequivalentto Nearest Codewordandto Odd Setunder
2 3
A-reductions (Note that these constraint languages are affine.)
3. If C ⊆ (cid:104)Γ(cid:105), where C ∈ {IE ,IV ,IN }, then MinCSP(Γ) does not have a constant-factor FPA
2 2 2
algorithm unless FPT = W[P]. (Note that in these cases Γ can ∃∧-define either arbitrary Horn
relations, or arbitrary dual Horn relations, or the NAE3 relation, defined in Lemma 7.)
Looking at the co-clone lattice, it is easy to see that Theorem 6 covers all cases. It is also easy to check
that Theorem 1 formulated in the introduction follows from Theorem 6.
Theorem 6 is proved the following way:
– Statement 1 is proved in Sections 4.1–4.3 (Corollaries 3, 4, and 5).
– Statement 2 is proved in Section 5 (Theorem 9).
– Statement 3 is proved in Sections 6.1 (Corollary 7 and Lemma 7).
This completes the proof of Theorem 6.
4 CSPs with FPA algorithms
In this section, we prove the first statement of Theorem 6 by going through co-clones one by one.
4.1 Co-clones II (0-valid) and II (1-valid)
0 1
As every relation of a 0-valid MinCSP is always satisfied by the all 0 assignment, and every relation of
a 1-valid MinCSP is always satisfied by the all 1 assignment, so we have a trivial algorithm for these
problems.
Corollary 3. If (cid:104)Γ(cid:105)⊆II or (cid:104)Γ(cid:105)⊆II , then MinCSP(Γ) is polynomial-time solvable.
0 1
4.2 Co-clone ID (bijunctive)
2
TheproblemAlmost 2-SATisdefinedasMinCSP(Γ(2-SAT)),whereΓ(2-SAT)={x∨y,x∨¬y,¬x∨
¬y}.
Theorem 7 ([45]). Almost 2-SAT is fixed-parameter tractable.
Every bijunctive relation can be pp-defined by 2-SAT, thus the constant-factor approximability for
bijunctive languages follow easily from the FPT algorithm for Almost 2-SAT and from Corollary 1.
Corollary 4. If (cid:104)Γ(cid:105)⊆ID , then MinCSP(Γ) has a constant-factor FPA algorithm.
2
Proof. We check in Table 1 that B ={x⊕y,x→y} is a base for the co-clone ID . Relations in B (and
2
equality) can be ∃∧-defined over Γ(2-SAT), so the result follows from Corollary 1.
4.3 Co-clones IS (IHS-B+) and IS (IHS-B-)
00 10
We first note that if (cid:104)Γ(cid:105) is in IS or IS , then the language is IHS-B for some B ≥2.
00 10
Lemma 4. If (cid:104)Γ(cid:105) ⊆ IS , then there is an integer B ≥ 2 such that Γ is IHS-B+. If (cid:104)Γ(cid:105) ⊆ IS , then
00 10
there is an integer B ≥2 such that Γ is IHS-B-.
Proof. We note that there is no finite base for IS , thus (cid:104)Γ(cid:105) is a proper subset of IS (see Table 1).
00 00
There is no proper base for IS , IS , or IS either. It follows from the structure of the co-clone lattice
01 02 0
(Figure 1) that there exists a finite B ≥2 such that (cid:104)Γ(cid:105)⊆IS B, which implies that Γ is IHS-B+. The
00
proof of the second statement is analogous.
By Lemma 4, if (cid:104)Γ(cid:105) ⊆ IS , then Γ is generated by the relations ¬x,x → y,x ∨···∨x for some
00 1 k
k ≥2.TheMinCSPproblemforthissetofrelationsisknowntoadmitaconstant-factorapproximation.
Theorem 8 ([19],Lemma7.29).MinCSP(¬x,x→y,x ∨···∨x )hasa(k+1)-factorapproximation
1 k
algorithm (and hence has a constant-factor FPA algorithm).
Now Theorem 8 and Corollary 1 imply that there is a constant-factor FPA algorithm for MinCSP(Γ)
whenever (cid:104)Γ(cid:105) is in the co-clone IS or IS (note that equality can be ∃∧-defined using x→y). In fact,
00 10
one can observe that the resulting algorithm is a polynomial-time approximation algorithm: Theorem 8
gives a polynomial-time algorithm and this is preserved by Corollary 1.
Corollary 5. If (cid:104)Γ(cid:105)⊆IS or (cid:104)Γ(cid:105)⊆IS , then MinCSP(Γ) has a constant-factor FPA algorithm.
00 10
Note that Theorem 7.25 in [19] gives a complete classification of Boolean MinCSPs with respect to
constant-factorapproximability.Asmentionedintheproofabove,theseMinCSPsalsoadmitaconstant-
factorapproximationalgorithm.ThereasonweneedCorollary5istohavethecharacterizationinterms
of the co-clone lattice.
5 CSPs equivalent to Odd Set: co-clones IL (affine) and IL (affine &
2 3
self-dual)
In this section we show the equivalence of several problems under A-reductions. We identify CSPs that
are equivalent to the following well-known combinatorial problems.
Nearest Codeword
Input: An m×n matrix A, and an m-dimensional vector b.
Output: An n dimensional vector x that minimizes the Hamming distance between Ax and b.
Odd Set
Input: a set-system S ={S ,S ,...,S } over universe U.
1 2 m
Output: A subset T ⊆ U of minimum size such that every set of S is hit an odd number of times
by T, that is, ∀i∈[m], |S ∩T| is odd.
i
Even/Odd Set is the same problem as Odd Set, except that we can specify whether a set should
be hit an even or odd number of times (the objective is the same as in Odd Set: find a subset of
minimumsizesatisfyingtherequirements).Wecallasetthatmustbehitanodd(even)numberoftimes
odd (even) set. We show that this does not make the problem much more general: there is a parameter
preserving reduction from Even/Odd Set to Odd Set.
Lemma 5. There is a cost-preserving reduction from Even/Odd Set to Odd Set.
Proof. Let I be the instance of Even/Odd Set. If all sets in I are even sets, then the empty set is an
optimal solution. Otherwise, fix an arbitrary odd set S in I. We obtain an instance I(cid:48) of Odd Set by
o
introducing every odd set of I into I(cid:48), and for each even set S of I, we introduce the set S (cid:52)S into I(cid:48),
e e o
where (cid:52) denotes the symmetric difference of two sets. This completes the reduction.
Let W be a solution of size k for I. We claim that W is also a solution of I(cid:48). Then those sets of I(cid:48)
that correspond to odd sets of I are obviously hit an odd number of times by W. We have to show that
theremainingsetsofI(cid:48) arealsohitanoddnumberoftimes.LetT =S (cid:52)S besuchasetforsomeeven
e o
